During the first five innings Thursday afternoon, the Dodgers patiently waited.
For impossible shadows to subside on a sunny afternoon at Dodger Stadium.
For Milwaukee Brewers rookie star Jacob Misiorowski to lose steam amid an electric bulk-relief outing.
For the door to crack even slightly open, and give their veteran club — seeking a 3-0 lead in the National League Championship Series — the opportunity to burst through it.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, the moment finally arrived.
And once the Brewers wavered, the relentless Dodgers pounced.
With a two-run rally fueled by professional hitting, aggressive baserunning and a little cat-and-mouse with the pitch clock, the Dodgers broke an early tie, took a lead they wouldn’t relinquish and moved to the doorstep of the World Series with a 3-1 win in Game 3 of the NLCS.
For a team that underwhelmed so drastically in the regular season, the Dodgers are 8-1 in these playoffs.
“I just think we have guys who have a slow heartbeat, and that’s kind of what makes us successful in the postseason,” said Tommy Edman, who had the decisive hit in the sixth inning with a go-ahead single. “We just do a good job of staying level-headed, even in the big situations.”
That’s what happened in the sixth, when the Dodgers shrugged off a sluggish start to a game that had been dominated by Misiorowski and Tyler Glasnow.
The shadows went away. Misiorowski’s stuff started to diminish. And right on cue, the defending champions cashed in.
The inning started with a one-out single from Will Smith, who got a rare mistake from Misiorowski and hit a hanging slider on a liner to left.
Then, Freddie Freeman came to the plate and outwitted the rookie pitcher.
On the second pitch of the at-bat, Misiorowski came set and held the ball on Freeman, waiting to make his throw until just before the timer expired.
Freddie Freeman celebrates with teammates in the dugout after scoring in the sixth inning against the Brewers in Game 3 of the NLCS on Thursday at Dodger Stadium. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
“I could see Freddie kind of getting antsy in the box,” said Edman, who was standing on deck. “After that, I was like, ‘OK, he’s for sure gonna step in with as little time as possible.'”
Indeed, Freeman quickly adjusted, waiting for the clock to tick down to eight seconds — the point at which a hitter is required to be ready for the pitch — before stepping back up and crouching into his stance.
“That’s Freddie,” Misiorowski said. “It’s kind of to be expected.”
The sequence repeated itself for the rest of the six-pitch battle, until Freeman finally walked on a wide full-count fastball.
Edman then adjusted to a slider on his first pitch from Misiorowski, and roped an RBI single into center that broke a 1-1 tie.
“I’m not really looking for that [pitch],” Edman said. “He throws 102 mph, so you got to be ready for the fastball. I think the swing that I took, I just was able to stay through it. And, you know, get it out to center field.”
Tommy Edman hits an RBI single in the sixth inning of the Dodgers’ 3-1 win over the Brewers in Game 3 of the NLCS at Dodger Stadium on Thursday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Edman’s single included another heady — and ultimately rewarding — decision from Freeman, who aggressively charged for third base as the relay throw was cut off in front of the plate.
The move paid off two batters later, when heavily used Brewers closer Abner Uribe fired an errant pickoff throw to first that got past Andrew Vaughn and trickled up the right-field line.
Freeman trotted the final 90 feet home.
The bullpen made the 3-1 lead stand up, getting 10 big outs from Alex Vesia, Blake Treinen, Anthony Banda and Roki Sasaki in what was a return to form for the scuffling relief staff.
And now, with Shohei Ohtani set to start in Game 4 on Friday night, the Dodgers are in position to sweep their way back into the Fall Classic.
“We’re five wins away from what we really want,” shortstop Mookie Betts said.
Read more: Plaschke: Are these Dodgers the best postseason team in baseball history? They will be
Before the sixth inning, Game 3 was the first in this series that felt truly up for grabs.
The Dodgers scored first, thanks to a questionable tactical move from the Brewers — who used left-handed reliever Aaron Ashby as an opener, forcing him to face the top of the Dodgers’ order for the third time in the series.
The familiarity backfired. Ohtani hooked a leadoff triple into the right-field corner, snapping his season-long seven-game drought without an extra-base hit. Betts drove him in on the very next pitch, belting an RBI double into the right-center field gap.
Only once Misiorowski entered did the Brewers settle down.
Four months after dismantling the Dodgers in a six-inning, one-run, 12-strikeout gem, one that helped him earn a surprise (and controversial) All-Star selection just five starts into his MLB career, the long-limbed and flame-throwing right-hander was similarly stout for most of his five-inning outing.
He stranded the two runners he inherited in the first with back-to-back strikeouts. He worked around an infield single from Andy Pages in the second. Then, with the shadows taking full effect behind him, he didn’t let another runner reach base until the fateful sixth. In all, he struck out nine of his first 16 batters.
Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow delivers in the first inning Thursday against the Brewers. (Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Glasnow, however, found equal success in a 5⅔-inning, one-run, eight-strikeout start — overcoming some early wobbles with an assist from his defense.
The Brewers scored their lone run in the second, after Caleb Durbin tripled (with the help of an over-aggressive dive from Kiké Hernández in left field) and scored on Jake Bauers’ RBI single.
But, they were denied more in the inning when third baseman Max Muncy turned what Glasnow later called “the play of the game, for sure;” making a diving stop from a drawn-in infield position with Bauers on third, then spinning for a throw home that beat Bauers and helped keep the game tied.
“If it had turned into two [run there], it’s a different story,” Glasnow said. “After that, the relief of that inning, him making that good defensive play, I was able to go back out and just try to stay in the zone and get some quick outs. It was a huge play. He did a great job.”
From there, Glasnow followed through on his plan, retiring 14 of his next 15 batters before his day ended on a two-out walk in the sixth.
The start kept the Dodgers’ rotation ERA in the postseason at an immaculate 1.54. The group also has 71 strikeouts in 58 ⅓ innings over its nine combined starts.
“It’s our pitching,” Muncy said when asked to explain the Dodgers’ 8-1 October record. “Offensively, there are situations we can do better jobs in. But, with the way our starting pitching has been, we’re giving them just enough.”
On Thursday, the usually pesky Brewers didn’t help themselves either.
The decision to start Ashby, then stick with Misiorowski so long, didn’t pan out.
Uribe’s wild pickoff attempt of Edman (who has been playing through a bad ankle this postseason) was even more puzzling, especially since the reliever hadn’t allowed a steal since 2023.
“I was really surprised,” Edman said. “Glad it happened though.”
There was another surprising move in the seventh, when after Durbin hit a leadoff double, manager Pat Murphy left Bauers in the game for a left-on-left matchup against Vesia. That at-bat ended with a harmless fly ball to shallow center field.
It was the first of nine consecutive outs that would end the game, and very likely the series — one in which the Dodgers have not only out-classed the less-talented Brewers, but also out-executed them in the most critical situations.
“We’re really excited,” Edman said. “It’s been a bit of a trying year. We didn’t play the best during the regular season. But we’re getting hot at the right time, and are just one win away [from the World Series]. Hopefully, we can finish off tomorrow.”
Read more: Gold Glove finalist Mookie Betts’ fielding (and hitting) has Dodgers in position for sweep
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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